Daniel E. Harper, Ph.D.

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Daniel Harper is a Research Investigator in the Department of Anesthesiology and the Chronic Pain & Fatigue Research Center at the University of Michigan. He received a B.S. in Psychology with Honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) in 2007. He went on to pursue his graduate work at UNC in the Psychology Department’s Behavioral Neuroscience Program, receiving an M.A. in 2011 and a Ph.D. in 2014. His graduate research focused on psychophysical examinations of pain, tactile, thermal, and auditory processing in healthy individuals and those with chronic pain. In 2014 Daniel received a Tanner Award, UNC’s highest award for undergraduate teaching. He joined the CPFRC in June of that year as a postdoctoral fellow to learn several neuroimaging techniques, which he did under the mentorship of the CPFRC faculty and the support of an NIH K-12 fellowship. Daniel was promoted to a junior faculty position at the Center in June of 2016. He is currently Principal Investigator of an NIH K99-funded research project devoted to better delineating the central and peripheral nervous system contributions to temporomandibular disorders, utilizing a variety of techniques including functional magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, in vivo corneal confocal microscopy, immunological assays, and quantitative sensory testing. Daniel is also actively involved in other ongoing research, service, and mentoring activities at the CPFRC.